The plan would move most of the Army Corps of
Engineers' work to the departments of Interior and Transportation, while
leaving its defense-related functions in the Department of Defense.
Keep it together: It would shift the Corps’ commercial navigation
functions such as ports to the Transportation Department. All other activities
would move to Interior, including flood and storm damage response, aquatic
ecosystem restoration, and operating hydropower dams.
In a second proposal, the White House looks to merge
the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the Commerce Department, with
Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so that the Endangered Species Act
and Marine Mammal Protection Act can be administered in one agency.
Clean team-up: The Trump administration also proposes combining
various environmental and hazardous waste cleanup programs. It would give more
responsibility to the EPA’s Superfund program by also having the department
administer Interior’s Central Hazardous Materials program and a similar program
governed by the Department of Agriculture.
Fuel wars: The White House wants more consolidation in the Energy
Department, too.
It calls for combining research and development
programs for different energy sources — fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewables —
into a single new Office of Energy Innovation.
Back to life: And finally, the White House reorganization plan would
resurrect an unpopular idea to sell off the assets of many of the nation's
federally owned electric utilities from Tennessee to the Pacific Northwest.
